New changes to help stray animals

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Amarillo, TX - Big changes are being made in our area to help keep stray animals healthy and give them a new home.

Amarillo's Animal Control and Humane Society are on a mission to do what they can to increase adoptions, decrease disease, and lessen euthanasia.

Without sufficient funding, they can't make drastic changes right now but what they can do is slowly implement affordable one's.

Thousands of stray animals come to Animal Control and the Humane Society each year, now more is being done to help them.

"Remodeling our cat area, remodeling the Humane Society, maybe putting in a little park in the back of the animal control facility to enrich the adoption process," says Shannon Barlow, Amarillo's Animal Control.

The proposed plans for the park include a large fenced-in area, sun-roofs and a walking path.

This will allow the person adopting to better interact with the animal.

Another thing in the works is they're going to be putting in dividers in between the kennels, that way the dogs don't touch each other and reduce the chance of spreading disease.

A new air flow system will also help keep those animals healthy.

"Keep a lot of fresh air moving through the kennels so that will help with some of the sickness we have to deal with right now," says Shannon Barlow, Amarillo's Animal Control.

New programs are also in place.

"The program is geared for maybe an animal that was picked up by Animal Control for the first time, they've never been at the facility, the owners don't have any priors. Well instead of being hit with tickets and fines, we want to encourage them to come and reclaim their animals. So much of the euthanasia that goes on there are just lost pets," says Andrea Soliz, Amarillo Panhandle Humane Society.

So that's why now there's a push to help reduce the amount of cats they euthanize, potentially reduce it to half.

"Texas Panhandle Pet Savers is going to do a presentation to the public board of health in a few weeks. Then we can talk about if we want to implement an actual trap-neuter and release program," says Shannon Barlow, Amarillo's Animal Control.